Latest news with #droneAttacks
LBCI
27-05-2025
- Politics
- LBCI
Russia accuses Ukraine of escalating air attacks to thwart peace talks
Moscow on Tuesday accused Kyiv of increasing air barrages with the aim of disrupting peace talks and said that its own massive assaults on Ukraine -- which killed 13 people at the weekend -- were a "response" to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia. "Kyiv, with the support of some European countries, has taken a series of provocative steps to thwart negotiations initiated by Russia," Moscow's defense ministry said, adding that the Russian army was striking Ukraine "in response to mass Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian regions." AFP
Wall Street Journal
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Trump Sounds Upbeat on Ukraine Cease-Fire as Russia Unleashes Drone Barrage
When President Trump holds a phone call with Vladimir Putin on Monday, he will be facing a Kremlin leader pursuing twin goals: slow-walking peace talks and simultaneously portraying himself as a peace-loving president who could be a valuable trade partner of the U.S. Russia has shown no sign of letting up in its assault on Ukraine. Moscow launched one of the largest aerial barrages of the war overnight into Sunday, deploying 273 drones across Ukraine. The attacks killed at least one person and injured three in Kyiv, including a 4-year-old.
CNA
09-05-2025
- Politics
- CNA
Blasts rock Indian Kashmir, Amritsar as Pakistan conflict escalates
JAMMU: Blasts rang out across Indian Kashmir and the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in neighbouring Punjab state late on Friday (May 9), with the Indian military saying they were shooting down drones in the worst fighting with Pakistan in nearly three decades. The explosions in Amritsar - the first heard in the three-day-old conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours - could mark a further expansion in the hostilities that have alarmed world powers. Projectiles and flashes were seen in the night sky above the Indian Kashmir city of Jammu that was plunged into a blackout on the second night of blasts in the region's winter capital, officials and a Reuters journalist said. "Drones have been sighted ... They are being engaged," said an Indian military official who asked not to be named. Ten blasts were heard near the airport in the Indian Kashmir city of Srinagar, and there were explosions in a dozen other locations in the contested region, other security officials added. There was no immediate comment from Pakistan, which dismissed Indian accusations that it had launched attacks on the same area on Thursday night. The old foes have been clashing since India struck several areas that it described as "terrorist infrastructure" in Pakistan on Wednesday in retaliation for a deadly attack on Hindu tourists in Indian Kashmir last month. Pakistan dismissed Indian accusations that it was involved. Both countries have exchanged cross-border fire and shelling and sent drones and missiles into each other's airspace. Around 48 people have been killed since Wednesday, according to casualty estimates on both sides of the border that have not been independently verified. Tourists and villagers fled border zones, residents rushed to stockpile food and people were told to stay indoors in cities in Kashmir and beyond. India's cricket board on Friday suspended the IPL - the sport's richest tournament - and the Pakistan Super League postponed its remaining eight matches. The relationship between India and Pakistan has been fraught with tension since they gained independence from colonial Britain in 1947. The countries have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir, and clashed many times. CLASHING ACCUSATIONS India's airforce earlier said Pakistan used Turkish drones to attack 36 locations on India's west and northwest, in Kashmir and further afield in states bordering Pakistan all the way to the edge of the Arabian Sea on Thursday night into Friday morning. India responded with drones on targets in Pakistan and destroyed one air defence system, Indian Air Force officer Vyomika Singh told a media briefing. Pakistan Information Minister Attaullah Tarar had dismissed earlier Indian accusations of Pakistani attacks as "baseless and misleading" and said Pakistan had not carried out any "offensive actions". In Pakistani Kashmir, officials said heavy shelling from across the border killed five civilians, including an infant, and wounded 29 others in the early hours of Friday. The fighting is the deadliest since a limited conflict between the two countries in Kashmir's Kargil region in 1999. Sirens had blared for more than two hours earlier on Friday in in Amritsar, which houses the Golden Temple revered by Sikhs. Tourists fled the city by road as the airport was closed. "We really wanted to stay but the loud sounds, sirens, and blackouts are giving us sleepless nights. Our families back home are worried for us so we have booked a cab and are leaving," said a British national who did not want to be named. Schools and coaching centres were closed in the Bikaner region of India's desert state of Rajasthan, and residents near the Pakistan border said they were asked to move further away and consider moving in with relatives or using accommodation arranged by the government. Further south in Bhuj in Gujarat, authorities said tourist buses had been kept on standby in case they needed to evacuate people near the Pakistan border. India's Directorate General of Shipping directed all ports, terminals and shipyards to increase security, amid "growing concerns regarding potential threats". Indian shares fell for a second straight session on Friday, losing about US$83 billion in market value, with both key stock indexes losing 1.1 per cent.
News.com.au
09-05-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
India says repulsed fresh Pakistan attacks as de-escalation efforts grow
India said Friday it had repulsed a wave of Pakistani drone and artillery attacks overnight, and Islamabad insisted it had not struck targets across the border, as the latest conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours showed no signs of relenting. Nearly 50 people have been killed on both sides, mainly in Pakistan, since India launched air strikes on Wednesday targeting "terrorist camps" and sparking the worst clashes in decades. New Delhi blames Islamabad for backing an April 22 attack near Pahalgam, a tourist town on the Indian-run side of disputed Kashmir which killed 26 people, almost all of them travellers and Hindu men. Pakistan denies the claim. The countries have fought two of their three full-scale wars over Kashmir, a disputed territory that both claim in full but have administered separate portions of since 1947 when the sub-continent was divided into two nations after British colonial rule ended. "Pakistan Armed Forces launched multiple attacks using drones and other munitions along entire Western border on the intervening night of 08 and 09 May," the Indian army said in a statement on Friday. "The drone attacks were effectively repulsed and befitting reply was given," it said. Islamabad denied launching drone attacks after India on Thursday said Pakistani forces targeted three military stations -- two in Kashmir and one in the neighbouring state of Punjab. "Pakistan has not targeted any locations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir, or across international border, so far," Pakistan's Information Minister Ataullah Tarar said late Thursday. In Indian-administered Kashmir, a police official said one woman died after heavy overnight shelling in Uri, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the state capital Srinagar, and two men were wounded. - Airports, schools closed' - Schools were closed on Friday in parts of Kashmir, six border districts in the neighbouring state of Punjab and in the provincial capital Chandigarh, and Rajasthan which also borders Pakistan. India has also closed 24 airports, but according to local media the suspension on civilian flights may be lifted on Saturday morning. The majority of the casualties have been in Pakistan, where at least 32 people have been killed, including 12 children. Islamabad said Thursday its forces had neutralised 29 Israeli-made Harop drones that attacked Pakistan. The cities targeted included Rawalpindi, headquarters of the military and also the cricket stadium hosting the ongoing Pakistan Super League. The remaining matches of the league have been moved to the United Arab Emirates. Indian cricket bosses will decide Friday what happens to the rest of their IPL season, a senior official said, in the face of the deadly confrontations. A match in Dharamsala -- less than 200 kilometres (125 miles) from Jammu, where explosions were reported hours earlier -- was abandoned late Thursday because of apparent floodlight failure. India meanwhile ordered X to block more than 8,000 accounts, the platform said, adding that it was reluctantly complying with what it described as government-imposed "censorship". The move appears to be part of India's sweeping crackdown targeting social media accounts of Pakistani politicians, celebrities and media organisations New Delhi has blamed the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba -- a UN-designated terrorist organisation for the April 22 shooting near Pahalgam. Pakistan has denied involvement and called for an independent investigation. - 'Immediate de-escalation' - Diplomats and world leaders have pressured both countries for restraint. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with leaders in both countries Thursday and urged "immediate de-escalation", his spokeswoman said. US Vice President JD Vance echoed that call but added that Washington was "not going to get involved in the middle of a war that's fundamentally none of our business". Several countries have offered to mediate, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in New Delhi on Thursday, days after visiting Pakistan. Amnesty said the warring sides "must take all necessary measures to protect civilians and minimise any suffering and casualties". Pakistani authorities insist they have the right to retaliate to India's initial strikes. In a late Wednesday TV address to the nation, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned they would "avenge" those killed by Indian air strikes.
Arab News
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
‘Big lie,' says Pakistan on New Delhi's accusations it tried to strike inside India
ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday described New Delhi's accusations that Pakistan had tried to carry out strikes inside India overnight as a 'big lie,' after India said it had 'neutralized' Islamabad's attempts to target military targets with drones and missiles. Fighting has escalated between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors since Wednesday when India struck multiple locations in Pakistan in response to a deadly April 22 attack targeting tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi blames on its neighbor. Pakistan, which denies any link to the Kashmir violence, said it had shot down five Indian fighter jets in retaliation. Thursday brought more violence as Pakistan said it had downed 29 Israeli-manufactured Harop drones launched from India overnight and New Delhi said Islamabad had launched an air attack using 'drones and missiles' before it retaliated to destroy an air defense system in Lahore. 'Today, a politically based and motivated story was issued that last night Pakistan attacked different Indian military installations and military areas. It's a big lie. It's a very big lie,' Dar, who is also the country's foreign minister, told reporters. He said India had 'concocted' the story to justify attempting to carry out waves of drone attacks inside Pakistan. 'What they did today [sending drones], from Islamabad to South Pakistan till Karachi, in at least two dozen places, is shameful, regretful and condemnable,' Dar added. The foreign minister's press conference followed a statement by India's defense ministry that said Pakistan on Thursday morning 'attempted to engage a number of military targets ... using drones and missiles,' which were 'neutralized' by air defense systems. New Delhi said areas targeted included sites in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, and India's Punjab state, including the key cities of Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, as well as Bhuj in Gujarat state. 'The debris of these attacks is now being recovered from a number of locations,' it added. The defense ministry said in retaliation, its military had 'targeted air defense radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan,' saying the 'response has been in the same domain, with the same intensity, as Pakistan.' It added that it had been 'reliably learnt that an air defense system at Lahore has been neutralized.' Dar, and military spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, have both rejected the claim. '29 drones so far have been neutralized,' Chaudhry said at the press conference alongside Dar. 'Only one managed to partially engage its target for which it came. Some equipment was damaged and four soldiers were injured.' He said three civilians had been killed and four injured during the exchange. The conflict between India and Pakistan has been confined in recent decades mostly to the disputed mountainous region of Kashmir. But the air strikes on Wednesday morning, which also hit the towns of Bahawalpur and Muridke in the heart of the country, and the drone incursions into some of the country's largest cities on Thursday, were seen in Islamabad as a major escalation. One drone was shot down over the garrison city of Rawalpindi, home to the Pakistan army's heavily fortified headquarters. One drone hit a military target near Lahore, the capital and largest city of the province of Punjab, and the second-largest city in Pakistan after Karachi. Other places where drones were neutralized were Gujranwala, Chakwal, Attock, Bahawalpur, Miano, Chor and near Karachi, which the country's largest city and commercial capital. India has also accused Pakistan of having 'increased the intensity of its unprovoked firing across the Line of Control using mortars and heavy caliber artillery' across the de facto border that divides Kashmir between the two nations. India said the number of people who had been killed by Pakistani firing since the escalation of violence on Wednesday had risen to 16, including three women and five children. Speaking in parliament, Pakistani Information Ministers said Pakistan had killed 40-50 Indian soldiers and destroyed a brigade headquarters along the Line of Control. The claims could not be independently verified and India has not commented on it. India and Pakistan have fought three wars in the past, two of them over Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part. Since April 22, they have intensified firing and shelling across the Line of Control. For decades India has accused Pakistan of supporting militants in attacks on Indian interests, especially in Indian-administered Kashmir. Pakistan denies such support and in turn accuses India of backing separatist and other insurgents in Pakistan, which New Delhi denies. With inputs from AFP and Reuters
